Guidelines For The Selection Of Blood Donors

The WHO guidelines on assessing donor suitability for blood donation have been developed to assist blood transfusion services in countries that are establishing or strengthening national systems for the selection of blood donors. They are designed for use by policy makers in national blood programmes in ministries of health, national advisory bodies such as national blood commissions or councils, and blood transfusion services.

Individuals who donate their blood provide a unique and precious gift in an act of human solidarity. In order to donate blood, prospective donors should be in good health and free from any infections that can be transmitted through transfusion. Most blood donors perceive themselves to be healthy, but some are unsuitable to donate blood due to the potential risk of compromising or worsening their own health or the risk of transmission of infections to patients. Blood transfusion services (BTS) have a duty of care towards blood donors as well as to the recipients of transfusion. This duty of care extends to prospective donors who are deferred from donation--whether on a temporary or permanent basis--as well as those who donate blood and are subsequently found to have unusual or abnormal test results. BTS have a responsibility to confirm test results and provide information, counseling and support to enable these individuals to understand and respond to unexpected information about their health or risk status. Counseling is part of the spectrum of care that a BTS should be able to provide to blood donors--including referral to medical practitioners or specialist clinical services. Pre-donation counseling was recognized as one element of the strategy to reduce and, if possible, prevent the donation of blood by individuals who might be at risk for HIV and other TTI including hepatitis B and C viruses as well as to inform the donor of the donation process and testing of blood for HIV. Post-donation counseling was acknowledged to be a necessary element of donor management as an adjunct to informing donors of unusual or abnormal test results. Blood donor counseling by trained specialist staff is now considered to be a key component of the blood system in most countries with a well-developed blood transfusion service. It may be required at a number of stages in the blood donation process or following blood screening and should be available at any point at which the BTS has an interface with donors. In many countries, however, blood donor counseling is not yet available in a structured way. Blood Donor Counselling: Implementation Guidelines has therefore been developed to provide guidance to blood transfusion services that have not yet established donor counseling programs.

"Blood transfusion is a life-saving intervention that has an essential role in patient management within health care systems. All Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed World Health Assembly resolutions WHA28.72 (1) in 1975 and WHA58.13 (2) in 2005. These commit them to the provision of adequate supplies of safe blood and blood products that are accessible to all patients who require transfusion either to save their lives or promote their continuing or improving health." --Preface.

During the early years of the AIDS epidemic, thousands of Americans became infected with HIV through the nation's blood supply. Because little reliable information existed at the time AIDS first began showing up in hemophiliacs and in others who had received transfusions, experts disagreed about whether blood and blood products could transmit the disease. During this period of great uncertainty, decision-making regarding the blood supply became increasingly difficult and fraught with risk. This volume provides a balanced inquiry into the blood safety controversy, which involves private sexual practices, personal tragedy for the victims of HIV/AIDS, and public confidence in America's blood services system. The book focuses on critical decisions as information about the danger to the blood supply emerged. The committee draws conclusions about what was doneâ€"and recommends what should be done to produce better outcomes in the face of future threats to blood safety. The committee frames its analysis around four critical area: Product treatmentâ€"Could effective methods for inactivating HIV in blood have been introduced sooner? Donor screening and referralâ€"including a review of screening to exlude high-risk individuals. Regulations and recall of contaminated bloodâ€"analyzing decisions by federal agencies and the private sector. Risk communicationâ€"examining whether infections could have been averted by better communication of the risks.

Phlebotomy uses large, hollow needles to remove blood specimens for lab testing or blood donation. Each step in the process carries risks - both for patients and health workers. Patients may be bruised. Health workers may receive needle-stick injuries. Both can become infected with bloodborne organisms such as hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis or malaria. Moreover, each step affects the quality of the specimen and the diagnosis. A contaminated specimen will produce a misdiagnosis. Clerical errors can prove fatal. The new WHO guidelines provide recommended steps for safe phlebotomy and reiterate accepted principles for drawing, collecting blood and transporting blood to laboratories/blood banks.

A comprehensive guide to each component of a quality assurance program for blood transfusion services, whether established in a small hospital blood bank or a large transfusion centre. Measures described are intended to ensure the maximum safety of all procedures for donors, recipients, and the staff themselves. Arguing that a system of quality assurance should be implemented in all transfusion services and blood banks, the book emphasizes the vital importance of strict quality control procedures at each stage of each procedure. The first chapter explains the importance of meticulous records and documents. Chapter two outlines nine elements that must be included in all standard operating procedures and sets out requirements for their implementation. Subsequent chapters describe measures for quality assurance in donor selection and blood collection. A chapter focused on the responsibilities of laboratories sets out, in tabular form, specific requirements for the quality control of ABO grouping, Rh(D) blood group reagents, HBsAg testing, anti-HIV testing and syphilis testing. The remaining chapters cover the testing and quality assurance of blood components and describe the roles of transfusion committees and audits.

Design Guidelines for Blood Centreswill serve as a tool for authorities responsible for developing building centers to house blood transfusion services. These guidelines were prepared to assist countries in developing appropriate, purpose-built facilities for blood services. They may be used to guide the design of new buildings, to direct the renovation of existing facilities or even to improve work patterns by considering the layout in established facilities.

Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis: Review Questions and Case Studies is the collaborative effort that spanned a time period of 2 years and included 50 experts, many whom are national leaders in their respected fields. It also represents the passion and privilege we feel to teach the next generation of physicians in Transfusion Medicine and Apheresis. The main goal for this book is to help the readers build a solid foundation of both basic and advanced conceptual knowledge to prepare for the American Board of Pathology (ABP) certification exam in Transfusion Medicine. This book is not intended to be a substitute for textbooks, original research or review articles, and/or clinical training. Further, since the field of medicine, both from a scientific and regulatory perspective, rapidly changes, the readers are advised to continuously update their knowledge by attending national meetings and reading clinical journals. To equip the readers with the basic knowledge in critical reading and data analysis, which is an essential skill in daily medical practice, a novel chapter titled “Data Interpretation in Laboratory Medicine was included in this book. In this chapter, the readers are asked to make logical conclusions based on the given data and/or statistical results. Moreover, there is also a chapter on “Practical Calculations in Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis to help consolidate all the necessary formulas commonly used in daily practice for easy reference. These chapters are unique to our book and will not be found in any other currently on the market. All of the questions in this book were originally created by the authors of each chapter. Each question can either be standalone or part of a case scenario representing challenge cases in Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis. These questions often represent both rare and common clinical scenarios that the authors have seen during their clinical practice. Each question is then followed by 5 possible answers, with only one being correct (or the best answer). After the question, there is a conceptual explanation followed by a more factual explanation of the right and wrong answers. We gave the individual authors the freedom to choose how they explained the wrong answer choices. Some authors chose to be more direct (e.g. Answer A is incorrect because...), while other authors chose a more conversational style (e.g. Human resources (answer A) includes staffing, selection, orientation, training, and competency assessment of employees). This format is designed to help the student linking the conceptual and factual knowledge together to form a solid foundation for use in clinical practice. At the end of each chapter, there is a list of articles and textbooks that will prove useful to the motivated student who wishes to become an expert in the field. Another special feature to our textbook is the presence of a pre-test and post-test, which are provided to help the readers with self-assessment. As stated above, the main focus of this book is to help the readers preparing for the ABP certification exam in Transfusion Medicine. However, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field of Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis, we believe that this book is also beneficial to and can be used by all clinicians involved in the management of complex transfusion, apheresis, and hemostasis issues, such as hematologists, anesthesiologists, surgeons, and critical care physicians. We further believe that it is a helpful guide for these specialists to prepare for their own specialty certification exam, when the topics are related to Transfusion Medicine, Apheresis, and Hemostasis.

Using a practical approach, the Manual of Veterinary Transfusion Medicine and Blood Banking provides veterinary practitioners with evidence-based guidelines to refer to at the clinical practice level. Provides evidence-based information on transfusion medicine and blood banking practices Presents sections on recipient screening, donor selection, blood collection and storage, and how to meet blood product demands Includes useful protocols for transfusions and blood banking relevant to clinical practice Incorporates the balanced perspectives of veterinarians and veterinary technicians Contains information pertaining to large, small, and exotic animals

Commonly known as the Red Book, Guidelines for the Blood Transfusion Services in the United Kingdom 8th Edition contains best practice guidelines for all materials produced by the United Kingdom Blood Transfusion Services (UKBTS) for both therapeutic and diagnostic use. Key features: Sets standards to be met, describes technical details of processes and states legally binding requirements under Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005; Reflects the work of Joint UKBTS/HPA Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC) experts with the overall aim of ensuring as far as possible the safety of Blood transfusion for both donor and patient in the UK;Focuses on products rather than their use